Wednesday, November 09, 2016

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe has granted voting rights to as many as 60,000 convicted felons just in time for them to register to vote, nearly five times more than previously reported and enough to win the state for his long-time friend, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

McAuliffe sought to allow all of Virginia’s estimated 200,000 felons to vote, but state courts said each individual felon’s circumstances must be weighed. To get around that, McAuliffe used a mechanical autopen to rapidly sign thousands of letters, as if he had personally reviewed them, even as his office was saying the total was 13,000.

Now, The Daily Caller News Foundation Investigative Group has learned that McAuliffe — who managed Clinton’s unsuccessful 2008 presidential campaign — churned out five times as many letters before the registration deadline than publicly claimed.

What this election has done - it's brought all the facts to bear for the public to see via Wikileaks. So people who are voting for Clinton - they are voting for a criminal enterprise. Clinton is not the 'head' of this enterprise, but a public representative, a puppet, a "consigliere." Never before has so much evidence been brought forth, in plain site, in black and white. If you haven't done so already - have a peek in the emails here at Wikileaks.

The Obama administration is refusing to shed light on a Jan. 2013 conference call that could shed light on whether Hillary Clinton and her top aides thwarted Freedom of Information Act requests for her emails.

Emails show that Heather Samuelson, a Clinton lawyer who worked at the State Department, was scheduled to take part in a Jan. 7, 2013 conference call to discuss a FOIA request filed in Dec. 2012 for Clinton’s emails with Sheryl Walter and Karen Finnegan, two records management officials who worked for State.

The discussion in that call would help shed light on why the State Department later declined that FOIA request even though Clinton used a personal email account, a fact which was known to dozens of State Department and Obama administration officials.

Clinton and her team have denied that her private email system was intended to escape the reach of FOIA. But some Clinton critics have noted that her State Department improperly denied several requests for her emails filed while she was in office.

The Clinton campaign privately worried about the optics of having Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes host a fundraiser at their headquarters, but opted to go ahead with the event anyway after a change of venue.

At the time, Theranos and Holmes were in the process of being exposed for having faked lab results for blood tests of thousands of Americans, risking their health and lives. The venue was ultimately changed from their headquarters to a private home, but Holmes remained as host.

U.S. survey companies and media organizations that collectively presaged a close Hillary Clinton victory now face an autopsy on how they got it so wrong after a year suffused by polls, aggregates of polls and even real-time projections of the vote on Election Day.

While the predictions gave some observers a soothing sense of certainty, actual voters still possessed the capacity to shock. Donald Trump’s commanding performance defied the final surveys of the American electorate, which broadly predicted a Clinton win of 2 to 4 percentage points.

“It’s harder and harder to poll today, to get a sample that looks like the electorate,” said Karlyn Bowman, a public opinion analyst at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. “We’ve seen epic fails.”

Tuesday’s results were just the latest high-profile predictive failure around the world, following on the heels of misleading surveys on the Colombia peace deal referendum this year and Greece’s bailout referendum in 2015. Surveys were rendered inaccurate by new forms of technology and communication and political questions unlike any seen in recent history. The inaccuracy called into question a basic gauge of sentiment used by politicians, citizens and financiers.

“The anger is stronger than any of us really expected," said Megan Greene, chief economist at Manulife Asset Management in Boston, which handles money for institutional investors such as pensions and foundations.

The grandfather of U.S. opinion polling, Washington-based Gallup Inc., has pulled back. Four years ago, Gallup endured its third polling defeat in four cycles and walked away from presidential horse-race polling altogether.

Republican Liz Cheney defeated Democrat Ryan Greene on Tuesday to win the Wyoming congressional seat once held by her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney.

Cheney has never served in elected office, but was favored to win due to her family name recognition and the fact the GOP has held the state's lone House seat since 1978.

She had faced criticism, however, because she had not lived in Wyoming. She is a former State Department official who lost her only previous race in 2013 when she attempted to defeat the incumbent Republican in 2013.

The Huffington Post will end its months-long editor's note referring to Donald Trump as "racist" in an effort to start with a "clean slate," according to news reports on Tuesday.

For months, stories on Trump carried this disclaimer at the end:

"Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S."

However, Huffington Post Washington Bureau Chief Ryan Grim told staffers in a memo that the website planned to "start with a clean slate,"according to Politico.

Change is in the air with the election of Donald J. Trump as president of the United States. As a billionaire real estate developer, Trump is truly an outsider in the world of politics, and now he is the holder of the highest office in the land.

His victory took many people by surprise, especially because critics doubted his campaign’s success since he first announced his candidacy more than a year ago.

Beginning on Jan. 20, 2017, the hard work begins for the new president. Here are seven things Trump's win means for America:

1. Tax cuts across the board – “His tax plan is one of the most dynamic and pro-growth tax plans out there,” says Merrill Matthews of the Institute for Policy Innovation, according to TheStreet. Trump’s plan includes business taxes capped at 15 percent, which could boost business investment and help grow the economy.

Russia is ready to do its part to fully restore ties with Washington following the election of businessman Donald Trump as the next U.S. President, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday.

Trump stunned the world by defeating heavily favored rival Hillary Clinton in Tuesday's presidential election, ending eight years of Democratic rule and sending the United States on a new, uncertain path.

Among those uncertainties will be the Trump administration's future relations with Russia. Ties between Washington and Moscow have become increasingly strained over the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria, and allegations of Russian cyber attacks featured in the U.S. election campaign.

"We heard the campaign statements of the future U.S. presidential candidate about the restoration of relations between Russia and the United States," Putin said on Wednesday at a ceremony to receive credentials from new foreign ambassadors.

The board already approved a new moniker for the 164-year-old company starting Jan. 1: American Outdoor Brands Corp. Investors will vote on the change at a Dec. 13 meeting, Smith & Wesson said in a statement Monday. The change only affects the holding company, not the brand name of its guns.

The iconic manufacturer, founded by Horace Smith and Daniel B. Wesson in 1852, won fame for producing one of the first successful revolver-style pistols popular in the West. While about 90 percent of its sales are generated from firearms, Smith & Wesson has expanded to four units that include non-weapon products such as flashlights and Hooyman tree saws.

FBI agents across the country are continuing to actively pursue a broad political corruption investigation of the Clinton Foundation, a probe that is consuming the resources in the FBI’s Little Rock, Ark., field office where every agent assigned to public corruption matters now is working on the case, The Daily Caller News Foundation’s Investigative Group has learned.

“Everybody’s working the foundation in Little Rock,” a former senior FBI official told TheDCNF. There at least 10 agents involved, but it’s possible the Little Rock field office is “pulling bodies from other programs.”

The official previously told TheDCNF that an unprecedented FBI probe of the foundation was being waged in multiple cities, which TheDCNF reported in August. The other cities involved in the probe include New York, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles and Miami.

With the odds of a rate hike soaring to cycle highs amid seeming cognitive dissonance over the state of the US economy, the US equity market has held up relatively well. However, not everyone is excited about the prospect of higher interest rates asUS homebuilder stocks have tumbled over 16% from their mid-summer highs.

Now at 8-month lows, the fundamental problems facing builders are exacerbated by the formation of a "death cross" (where the 50-day moving-average crosses below the 200-day moving-average).

When this happened in November/December of last year - as The Fed hiked rates - builders plunged 27%.

The holidays are a time to celebrate the joy and warmth of the season with friends and family. In Berlin and Salisbury, the local Home Instead Senior Care® office is inviting the community to celebrate with local seniors who may be alone during the holiday season.

The Home Instead Senior Care office serving Wicomico, Worcester and Somerset Counties is helping to facilitate Be a Santa to a Senior®, a community program that provides gifts and companionship to seniors who may be isolated from friends or family during the holiday season. The program is made possible through the generous support of local businesses, nonprofit organizations, retailers, numerous volunteers and members of the community.

“The holidays can be a troubling time for seniors. They may feel the absence or the distance of loved ones,” said Corrie Boger, co-owner of the Berlin Home Instead Senior Care office. “Be a Santa to a Senior provides a ray of hope for many seniors, and it means so much for them to know that people care and value them as members of our community.”

That completes 22 straight years in which the United States has run monthly merchandise trade deficits with Mexico.

The last time the United States ran a merchandise trade surplus with Mexico was September 1994—when the U.S. ran a $4,700,000 bilateral surplus with its southern neighbor.

The U.S. Census Bureau has published monthly figures on the export and import of goods to and from Mexico going back to January 1985. In the 31 complete calendar years that have passed since then (1985 through 2015), the United States has run merchandise trade surpluses with Mexico in four years and deficits in 27 years.

Three of those years that the U.S. ran a surplus—1991,1992,1993—were before the North American Free Trade Agreement took effect. The fourth year the United States ran a merchandise trade surplus with Mexico—1994—was the first year NAFTA took effect.

PARSONSBURG – A new program pairing at-risk kids with some of the nation’s strongest role models is giving both the chance to benefit from the healing power of horses.

Teaming for Success, a new program offered by 4Steps Therapeutic Riding, gives veterans the chance to work with troubled youth in an equine-assisted treatment program.

“They deserve more respect than anybody for serving and stepping up,” said Sandy Winter, director of the nonprofit 4Steps Therapeutic Riding. “This is the thing we’d like to instill in our kids.”

At 4Steps Therapeutic Riding, located on Sixty Foot Road in Parsonsburg, people of all backgrounds and abilities are given the chance to work with horses. Teaming for Success, made possible with the support of the Community Foundation of the Eastern Shore, is designed specifically to benefit troubled youth. Interested veterans are provided with training by Winter and are then given the chance to share their new knowledge of horses with at-risk kids referred to the program by local social service organizations. There are currently five children in the program, most of whom come from families where one if not both parents are incarcerated.

Before he became FBI director, James Comey lived the Gold Coast high-life in Connecticut as a hedge fund high-roller.

Now the besieged Comey - under fire for his surprise letters to Congress about Hillary Clinton's controversial emails that have thrown the presidential election into chaos - is about to take another hit, this time on his palatial $3 million-plus home.

Comey bought the estate on more than three acres not far from where Martha Stewart used to live in ritzy Westport, Connecticut, for $3,050,000 in August 2010.

He's now had to reduce the price four times down to $2.5 million and he still doesn't have a buyer for the palatial estate.

Comey, who has a net worth of $11 million, lived like a king during the six years he spent at the Connecticut home.

A 25-year-old man was convicted Thursday for his role in a Jamaican lottery scam that authorities say cost victims around the country millions of dollars.

Sanjay Williams, of Montego Bay, Jamaica, was found guilty of conspiracy, wire fraud and money laundering and faces up to 40 years in prison.

Investigators described Williams primarily as a 'lead broker' who bought and sold 'sucker lists' of potential victims. He was the only one of 32 defendants to opt for trial; about a dozen defendants are awaiting extradition from Jamaica.

Prosecutors said Williams, who was arrested in North Carolina, was the first person from Jamaica convicted of selling the lead lists used in the scam.

'I hope it makes a difference,' Assistant U.S. Attorney Clare Hochhalter said. 'I hope it sends a message to the people who continue doing this crime.'

Seaford - The Delaware State Police have arrested a wanted sex offender and found drugs in his possession.

The incident began around 2:00 p.m. Tuesday November 8, 2016 as troopers assigned to the Pro-Active Criminal Enforcement (P.A.C.E.) team, with the assistance of the Sussex County Drug Unit, Sussex County Governors Task Force, Sex Offender Apprehension and Registration Unit (S.O.A.R.), and the Special Operations Response Team (S.O.R.T.) were conducting surveillance on Maurice D. Cannon, 34 with a last registered address in Bridgeville. Cannon was wanted by S.O.A.R. after he failed to re-register as a sex offender within three days of change of address as well as making a false written statement back in August of 2016 (See News Release: https://dspnewsroom.com/2016/09/03/dsp-s-o-a-r-searching-for-wanted-sex-offenders-4/). He was also wanted out of Sussex County Courts for capiases.

Troopers began following Cannon from a residence on Oneals Road and continued to follow as he drove throughout lower Sussex County. He was taken into custody without incident as he pulled into the Delmar Pizza parking lot located at 38660 Sussex Highway where a search was conducted on the vehicle. Located in a book bag was 90.03 grams of marijuana, 41.30 grams of powdered cocaine, 40.07 grams of crack cocaine, 6 Acetaminophen Hydrocodone pills, and over $3,100.00 in suspected drug proceeds.

Maurice Cannon was transported back to Troop 5 where he was charged with two counts of Possession of a Controlled Substance in a Tier 5 Quantity (Cocaine), two counts of Possession with Intent to Deliver a Controlled Substance in a Tier 4 quantity (Cocaine), Possession of Marijuana, and Possession of a Controlled Substance without a Prescription. He was arraigned at JP3 and committed to Sussex Correctional Institution on $105,000.00 secured bond.

I want you to imagine how, in four years' time, technologies like AI, machine learning, sensors and networks will accelerate.

Political campaigns are about to get hyper-personalized, thanks to advances in a few exponential technologies.

Imagine a candidate who now knows everything about you, who can reach you wherever you happen to be looking, and who can use info scraped from social media (and intuited by machine learning algorithms) to speak directly to you and your interests.

In 2016, 78% of Americans have a social media profile. This year, 162 million Americans (over 50%) will log onto Facebook at least once a month.

In four years, these numbers will continue to explode. And so will a campaign's knowledge about you, what you care about and who you are.

AI agents built by political campaigns will stalk your every move, scraping your social graph, reading your tweets and posts, analyzing your Instagram photos… mining your publicly available data to know more about you than ever before.

The single most important factor influencing your voting decision is your social network… so you can bet that political campaigns will be mining this data to find your top social influencers, what stories you're reading, and subjects that resonate with you.

An election eve poll finds sweeping support for immigration enforcement even among most Hispanics in the United States, potentially bolstering Donald Trump's presidential bid.

The Pulse Opinion Research survey found that 51 percent of Hispanics believe that there has been "too little" done to enforce immigration laws. What's more, by a margin of 49 percent to 36 percent, Hispanics "support a policy causing illegal immigrants to return home by enforcing the law."

Overall, the survey done for the Center for Immigration Studies, found that most Americans, 54 percent, believe that the administration has done too little to enforce immigration laws and 56 percent support returning illegals.

Voters have booted Sheriff Joe Arpaio from office in his bid for a seventh term after his legal problems in a racial profiling case culminated in a criminal charge two weeks before Election Day.

Arpaio, an 84-year-old Republican who became a national figure by cracking down on illegal immigration and forcing jail inmates to wear pink underwear, lost to Democrat Paul Penzone.

The race became a referendum on Arpaio's legal woes. Federal prosecutors brought a contempt-of-court charge stemming from his defiance of a judge's order to stop carrying out patrols targeting Latinos.

“I offer my congratulations to President-elect Donald Trump and to Vice President-elect Mike Pence, and will work with the new administration on behalf of all Marylanders. Now is the time for all of us to come together to find real solutions to the problems we face as a country. For the past two years, our administration has been committed to working with both Democrats and Republicans to change Maryland for the better and that is exactly what we need to see more of in Washington, D.C. As we move forward, I encourage both parties to leave behind the divisive politics that have marred this election season and our nation for far too long and focus on doing what is best for America.”

Now is a time to heal to pull together for "ALL"...As a nation we need to turn back to God and lift these men up and prayer..We are a great nation and we need to show the world once again how great we are by pulling together once again...

Republicans were all but guaranteed to keep their majority in the Senate Wednesday as they racked up key wins in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Indiana and Florida.

In Missouri, Democrat Jason Kander conceded to incumbent GOP Sen. Roy Blunt, eliminating Democrats’ paths to Senate control. Republicans were expected to win an outstanding race in Alaska and a December runoff in Louisiana.

The outcome added to what was shaping up as a grim election night for Democrats, who face being consigned to minority status on Capitol Hill for years to come.

District voters overwhelmingly approved a referendum to make the nation’s capital its 51st state on Tuesday, with pollgoers saying they hope the vote puts pressure on the next Congress and president to address D.C.’s lack of representation in Congress.

Voters in the District’s Ward 7, east of the Anacostia River, also resurrected the political career of former mayor Vincent C. Gray (D). They sent him back to the D.C. Council less than a year after prosecutors abandoned a campaign finance investigation that factored heavily in Gray’s failed 2014 reelection bid.

“I can’t wait to get back — I love public service,” said an ebullient Gray, 74, just after sunrise Tuesday, as he arrived to vote at a senior center in the Hillcrest neighborhood. Chauffeured in a black SUV by a longtime aide and sporting a black leather bomber jacket that read “Mayor Gray,” the candidate said he would entertain a future comeback campaign for mayor. “We’ll see. I won’t rule anything out,” he said, breaking into a smile.

BALTIMORE (WJZ/AP) — After losing his bid for the Governor’s mansion in 2014, Maryland’s former lieutenant governor Anthony G. Brown has made a political comeback by winning the race for the Maryland’s 4th Congressional District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The 4th district encompasses portions of Prince George’s County and Anne Arundel County.

The seat was vacated by Rep. Donna Edwards, who lost her spring primary bid for a U.S. Senate to Chris Van Hollen.

Republicans retained their lock on the House for two more years early Wednesday as GOP candidates triumphed in a checkerboard of districts in Florida, Virginia and elsewhere that Democrats had hoped Donald Trump’s divisive comments about women and Hispanics would make their own.

While expectations were nearly zero that Democrats would win the 30 seats they’d needed to capture House control for next year, both sides had anticipated they’d cut into the historic GOP majority by perhaps a dozen seats. Republicans currently hold a 247-188 majority, including three vacant seats, the most the GOP has commanded since their 270 in 1931.

President-elect, Donald J Trump made many promises during his campaign, and in his victory speech moments ago (at the time of this writing) that are important in healing the country. We must now hold him accountable to those promises as fervently as we supported his election.

If he does what he says, and frankly, his ego is too big to fail, he will open the tent wider for the Republicans. He has changed the party he claims for the foreseeable future. This is the best benefit of the election. Imagine how strong the Republican elections will become if delivers on his inclusive message.

You don't have to go to the inner-cities to see problems. You can look here on the peninsula and in Salisbury in particular. Fixing inner-cities is something that MUST be done. This will need to be a many pronged approach. Jobs, crackdowns on gangs and even in urban areas opening government run grocery stores to end food deserts in the cities.

He promised to build the wall. This is good for all Americans. There are plenty of Mexican to American naturalized citizens who came here legally who support this. I knew several folks in my travels in Arizona who made that clear to me. But also made clear to me, is that they also want comprehensive immigration reform.

This reform should include worker visas with close watch on expiration dates and strong penalties for those who violate their dates. Perhaps as strong as not issuing an offender a repeat or extended work visa.

Rounding up illegal immigrant violent criminals is key to any immigration policy. They need to do time for their crime, and then be returned, (deported) to their home country.

Repealing and replacing Obamacare is a key factor, but it must be done with great care, and continuation of coverage for people on this insurance until the replacement has been voted on, signed into law, and a total switch made. The ACA wasn't all bad, but there are better, and less expensive ways to accomplish the goal.

Rebuilding the military. If we needed to go to war now we might not be ready. The wars in Iraq and Afghnistan took a toll on ours equipment. Battles in the sand have reduced our effectiveness because equipment has been waiting to be repaired. That equipment must be repaired, refurbished and be made ready to deploy is if the members of Congress lives depended on it. That way, our young men and women can have assurance their equipment will not fail them in time of need.

Jobs. If Trump doesn't deliver there, he will devastate the country even further. He has experience creating jobs, and I believe he has the skill and knowledge to keep good policies and end bad policies. If he delivers on the promise to steel and coal, he will do much to bring the middle-class back. This means foreign trade deals that work for us and not against us.

Theater. He needs to speak often to the American people. Those who had no problem with corruption at the highest levels in the country, need to be talked off the ledge. They need reminded of what we really are as Americans.

What do you think President-elect Donald J Trump should do on his first day in office? What do you think he could do on Innauguration Day that would be impacting and set a tone?

That homemade sign, located in the fault line of this election in the Mahoning Valley between Ohio and Pennsylvania, in all its simplicity found a way to capture the essence of this presidential cycle.

In fact, it offered more insight into the discord between the American electorate and the governing elite than any pundit has been able to explain, let alone comprehend.

In short, the biggest takeaway from this election no matter who wins is that we have witnessed the end of elitism.

Maine is withdrawing from the federal refugee resettlement program just four days before Election Day, WMTW in Portlandreports.

“I have lost confidence in the federal government’s ability to safely and responsibly run the refugee program and no longer want the State of Maine associated with that shortcoming,” Gov. Paul LePage said in a letter sent to President Obama and released by his office late Friday.

“The federal government has proven to be an unwilling partner with states in ensuring that refugee resettlement does not unduly put American lives at risk,” Le Page added in the letter.

“I sincerely hope that the federal government will re-evaluate its current refugee policy — both the quantity and nation of origin of refugees it resettles and the vetting process they are subjected to — in order to best protect the safety and interests of the American people,” LePage wrote.

President Barack Obama’s Nov. 4 suggestion that voting by illegal aliens in the 2016 presidential election will not be investigated is “absolutely shocking,” says the former Republican Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer.

“Shocking. Absolutely shocking,” Brewer said to TV host Neil Cavuto. Obama “should have absolutely set [the interviewer] straight that if you’re not a citizen, you don’t get to vote. And just because you’re in our country ‘undocumented,’ you’re not a citizen. The [Democrats] want to blur the lines.”

Laws meant to protect unaccompanied minors who arrive in the United States lead to more illegal immigration and gang violence, according to a report from the Center for Immigration Studies.

The William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Reauthorization Protection Act of 2008 attempts to protect immigrant children from exploitation by calling for the Department of Health and Human Services secretary to place these children in a setting that is in their best physical and emotional interest.

“The implementation of the law in place to protect unaccompanied minors coming to the United States, especially from Central America, from abuse and human trafficking has created problems for the children and for the communities in which they are placed,” the report said.

“The unaccompanied alien children are often placed with sponsors who are in the United States illegally, with virtually no post-placement oversight by the federal government, exposing both the children and communities to increasingly profound waves of gang violence while perpetuating the illegal immigrant population.”

A white teacher in Seattle has been put administrative leave for the costume he wore to school. A costume that he had worn for the last 18 years, and only now he’s been attacked by the socialist crybabies that the government is growing these days. Would you like to know what the costume was?

He wore a rubber mask of Michael Jordan – which his scumbag students called cultural appropriation.

Peter Colino, a math teacher at Ingraham High School, dressed up as Michael Jordan, using a rubber mask, the NBA star’s Chicago Bulls jersey, a sweatband and also wore black gloves.

A video of Colino in the costume spread through the school quickly after it was shared on millennials favorite waste of time, Snapchat – but it also led to a parent complaining to the principal.

The seasoned math teacher has since apologized to his students, but said he’s worn the same costume to the school for the last 18 years and asserts that his intent was to ‘honor’ Jordan, not cause these babies any offense, cause goodness knows they couldn’t handle it.

One piece of work mother was apparently ‘floored’ when her son, who is black and a former student of Colino’s, sent her screenshots of him in the costume.

‘I couldn’t even believe the lapse of judgement, he was just disgusted. I was very grateful that he’s not in that man’s class anymore.’

The man who shot and killed a federal airport security screener and injured three others in a 2013 rampage at the Los Angeles International Airport was sentenced to life plus sixty years in prison without parole as part of a plea deal that spared him the possibility of the death penalty.

Paul Anthony Ciancia, 26, had pleaded guilty earlier this year to the murder of Transportation Security Administration officer Gerardo Hernandez and ten other criminal counts. Hernandez, a father of two, is the first TSA agent killed in the line of duty.

Ciancia was an unemployed motorcycle mechanic at the time of the shooting who had relocated to Los Angeles from New Jersey about 18 months earlier.